Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Appearance: Dark brown appearance, very similar to cola. Pours with a small, rapidly fading head and just a touch of lacing.Smell: Sweet chocolate and a nice roastiness. Slight off chemical smell, however.Taste: The front is met with a rich chocolate flavour which builds and combines with coffee in the middle. The finish hits hard, with a combination of floral hops and deep roast.Feel: Carbonation provides a nice crispness, without overpowering the flavour too much. Medium-bodied. (488 characters)

Pours dark brownish black with decent cola colored foam. Aroma of dark coffee and roasty malts, perhaps Postum or some other barley based coffee substitute. Tastes of the same, coffee, dark malt, burnt notes with perhaps a little bicarbonate of soda mild bitterness and sanguine tang. Hints of root beer sweetness. Rather thin body with creamy mouthfeel. Tiny amount of old world fruit (date or fig) as the sweetness accumulates but not a complex foray by any means. A nutty bitterness settles on the palate that makes me think rancid walnut. Not hoppy but what is there is earthy. Decent example of the style and a good session beer if you dig dark malt. (655 characters)

APPEARANCE: Pours a small, looser looking, white head with good retention. A transparent bistre brown in color with lover levels of carbonation evident. A splotchy wisp and ring remain until the end leaving some nice lacing down the glass. Head is a little loose, but this looks pretty nice going down.

SMELL: Milder nose on this one. Some dark malts, a touch of caramel sweetness and some vanilla cream. This is really mild and relatively boring though. Not impressive.

TASTE: Dark malts an a hint of sweet cream. Not much else really. The aftertaste is mild with more dark malts, sweet cream and some light notes of roasted bitterness. The flavors come out a little more as it sits, but this is generally boring and mild. Not much going on here.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Creamy enough on the palate, goes down fine and finishes relatively dry. A touch light for the style perhaps.

OVERALL: Not offensive or anything, but there's just not much to talk about. In a world of top class, interesting craft beer, this is one of the more boring, mundane examples. Certainly a beer that won't hurt you, but there are lots of better choices than this. Thanks again for the trade kjyost. (1,283 characters)

Pours deep rich brown to black with a nice tan head that leaves too little lacing. Nice nose with a spicy molasses feel. Bdy continues with a bit of molasses, but also notes of light liquorice and hint of cocoa powder come across. Hardly any roasted grain flavour for the colour. Coats the mouth nicely with appropriate carbonation and a clean finish. Much nicer than I was expecting. Worth having again. (468 characters)

A - About a finger-and-a-half of bubbly tan head puffs up off the pour. Deep brown-black with lots of ruby highlights. The settles to a nice foamy cap. Weaves a nice web of sticky lacing for a bit, but doesn't stick around.

T - Lots of caramel malt, clean grains, and a light kick of hops. Surprisingly light on the roasted malt and dark chocolate flavors for such a dark beer. Really creamy, with smokey and nutty notes as well.

A - Pours pitch black, thin layer of head with little retention and some sporadic lacing.

S - Mild, but tangy licorice malts with a touch of coffee on the finish.

T - Bitter coffee and some dark chocolate notes off the top, with light grassy hops coming through on the finish. Interesting balance of flavours that are uniquely jiving.

M - Medium bodied ale that goes down smooth and finishes with a touch of dryness.

D - A very drinkable dark ale with a good flavour balance that isn`t overpowering and won`t overload the tastebuds. Definitely impressed by this offering from Paddock Wood and would highly recommend trying it if you can get your hands on a bottle. (668 characters)

355ml bottle, a single procured from the broken case remainder bin at Keg 'n Cork on a quick lunchtime drop-by.

This beer pours a clear, very dark reddish cola amber hue, with a half finger's worth of sudsy, bubbly tan head, which leaves some sparse instances of paramecia lace around the glass as things quickly fall away.

The carbonation is moderate, just a pleasantly lilting frothiness abounding, the body a stocky medium weight, fairly smooth, and clean, with a nascent creaminess burgeoning as it warms. It finishes off-dry, the lingering singed caramel malt, disjointed sugar, and now ethereal chocolate countered by a biscuity crispness, origins duly obfuscated.

I was a little surprised by this one - it's a style that usually leaves me wanting more - but not here, my initial wonder misplaced, of course. A nice, even, solid, and flavourful black lager. Something tells me I'll be perhaps be revisiting this one in larger quantities come the onset of winter. (1,296 characters)

355ml bottle at Bar Volo in Toronto, ON. This schwarzbier surpassed my expectations, and I can see why it's ranked as one of Canada's Top 100 beers. Pours a blackish ruby brown with three fingers of bone white head and globs of lacing on the flute glass. Smell and taste are black liquorish, burnt grains, dark chocolate, roasted malt, mild hop bitterness, and a toasted, chalky finish with hints of flaked oat. The hops impart floral and herbal aromas but are not prominent in the flavour. There's a bit of plasticy smoke as well. Mouthfeel is medium-bodied, almost velvety, smooth and chocolaty, parched and grainy dryness to end. An excellent quaffer that I could drink all night long. I'll be seeking out more from Paddock Wood! (732 characters)

Apparance - gorgeous dark beer, black indeed, with a beige foam head that fluffs above the rim of my glass. Very sensational - a great pour.

Smell - a mixture of sweet malty aromas but I also detect liquorice in the smell and maybe some dark caramel also. I can't wait to taste it.

Taste - a balanced start with mostly neutral malts with a wave of coffee and caramel coming up suddenly and intensely toward the end. There is also what I would characterize as a woody and somewhat smoky element to this beer. Not unpleasant overall but unexpected for never having tried the style.

Mouthfeel - not really smooth as the finish is watery after the intense flavours. Definitely a wavy kind of beer.

Drinkability - not bad at all in any way but I'm glad I tried this beer but would not likely seek it out intentionally. (866 characters)

Bottle thanks to Presario. Pours a dark brown color with shades of red showing through and a nice thick light brown head. Aromas of sweet milk coffee, fruits, and rich earthy malts. Very nice. The taste is also very good; initially sweet nutty and malty chocolate flavors, later more of a bitter roasted and coffee flavor. Leaves very milky and creamy. A very nice creamy mouthfeel. Very nice overall. (401 characters)

This bottle comes from Shadman (thanks Mark!). I've been holding on to this for a suitable occasion, and because of the wonderful picture of the scary black cat on the front, I decided Halloween fit the bill.

Pours a very dark brown, bordering on black, although there are also some red highlights when held up against the light. A small tan head leaves a few patches of lace on the glass. Light coffee aroma, along with some chocolate. Although this makes very little sense, I would say it smelled smooth. The taste is a satisfying mix of breadiness and roasted malts, with good hints of coffee, smoke and caramel, before leading through to a modest leafy bitterness. Medium body, and medium to low carb, with a nice smoothness on the palate.

Overall, I think this is one of the better schwarbiers I've had, and it certainly holds its only against Kostritzer, which is the most readily available rendition in Ontario. I'd definitely recommend this to all lovers of the style! (978 characters)

Pours a clear dark reddish brown, thin off white head forms, drops to a thin ring around the glass, some lace spots. Smell is light, some iron and chocolate, fruits, caramel, oats, not much else. Taste is light as well, oats, some sweet malt, honey, bready malt, light bit of bitter chocolate, floral fruit in the finish. Mouthfeel is light bodied with medium carbonation, not a whole lot going on but certainly drinkable. Thanks Russ! (481 characters)

This is a very nice schwarzbier, glad i picked some up my last trip west. Looks decent, almost a one finger pale tan coloured head formed on the pour then dissipated to leave a thin collar. Deep brown body with chestnut highlights, and mild level of finely bubbling carbonation. No lacings.

But now to the tasting, and this is where this beer truly shines. Clean malty flavour upfront gives way to the roasted malts with a nice, clean dark chocolate flavour that lingers into the finish and beyond. A mild touch of stewed veggies appear just before the hops appear with a mild bitterness and herbal character. Then the roasted malts and hops linger long into the finish.

Almost medium bodied, somewhat mildly carbonated, dry, slightly creamy and very smooth lager with just the slightest hint of astringency.

This is an excellent lager, and is quite drinkable and sessionable. A great brew for introducing newbies to dark ales and lagers, and this is a must try for fans of schwarzbiers. The guys at Paddock Wood know how to brew their dark ales and lager. I easily prefer this offering to the more renowned Kostritzer and Black Barvarian, and will gladly get and drink more my next trip west. (1,340 characters)

Pours a nearly opaque cola brown with a full inch of creamy head off a fairly vigorous pour. Leaves some nice sticky lace all the way down. Carbonation appears to be quite low. Aroma is husky and grainy with a hint of pepper, grass, hay, earth, caramel, cocoa and juicy apples. Clean and delicious, style wise it's a super solid aroma.

Flavour is all grains off the top, then turns nutty with hints of cocoa, caramel and fruit offset by a light, almost lactic sourness. Very pleasant and uncomplicated flavour, this is a session beer to be sure. Dries nicely in the finish, fairly soft in the mouth and carbonation is medium-low. Body is a bit heavier than I expected. That would not stop me from drinking a few of these on an evening though. (812 characters)

Nice blend of juicy, green hops and roasted maltiness. Refreshing and very easy to drink session beer. Bittersweet baking cocoa...creamy with lively carbonation and light, crisp body. Very tasty with a nice European lager character and leafy hops...like a warm summer night.

Very affordable Saskatchewan brew...and so tasty. Will come back to this one a lot as I went through the six pack pretty fast. (595 characters)

A nicely drinkable shwartz thanks to Noxious26. This is malty and mollasses and licorice, and drying finish, but carmel malts made it a nice quick drink on hot night that did the trick. The freshness was good. Brownish colour and moderate cold coffee made it interesting.I could definately have this again. (306 characters)